The Jurassic Book, Chapter nine
Chapter nine The Jurassic Book. Plot Night has fallen, and Mowgli and his animal-cohorts were preparing for the ultimate battle against the Sinraptor Zannah and her army of Saurornithoides, in the village (Alex and his wolf-cousins were still grounded, so they'll be staying in the village). He also rented a dirt-bike as he felt that will be more useful than the truck right now. The animals were also fitted with some radio-collars to show their allegiance to Mowgli and to talk to each other while separated by distance, but most weren't exactly liking wearing them. "Do we have to wear these?" Maki complains, "well you don't want the other humans to treat you as enemies do you? besides as long as your wearing them, you'll be fine, and it's faster than having to send a flyer back and forth repeatedly" Mowgli instructs, "yeah but they're so uncomfortable" Lala moans, "and itchy" Baloo adds scratching his neck, "I kinda like it" Sura says not finding anything wrong about his collar at all, "eh you'll get used to it, I sometimes wore collars while living in Udaipur" Bagheera confides, "easy for you to say" Akru complains, "overgrown house cat" he adds to himself, but wasn't quiet enough to avoid Bagheera slightly hearing him, "what was that?" the panther demands, "nothing" Akru lies hastily while Meshua was checking on Mowgli's progress, "you sure about this?" she asks, "I have to, it's just like with Shere Khan: as long as Zannah lives, no one is safe, there's already been two human-deaths, and a few animal-ones for sport, she might even try to attack the village" Mowgli ascertains and Meshua could hardly argue, "good point, be careful at least" she concedes, "don't worry I will, besides I've faced worse" Mowgli promises before going to Jumeirah and Alex and given them each a kiss, then returns to the animals, "well Mowgli, since you seem to know the most about our foes, I'm putting you in charge" Luri declares and the majority of animals support her, "we're at your command Major Mowgli" Sandah says humorously, even doing a military salute, "okay then" Mowgli shrugs and steps on a box he's using as a makeshift podium, "alright listen up everyone" he shouts and everybody give their attention, "Mao's reported that Zannah is moving into the pack's territory, first thing we'll do is reconnaissance: those of you who can fly keep an eye out, if you see Zannah or one of her feathered-friends, relay it through your collars, and for those who have the best smelling capabilities: if you catch whiff of their scent, lead us to where they're stationed" he adds before taking a deep breath, "and I'll be honest: if we do find them, I can guarantee that there will be a battle" he adds and this caused some animals to have doubts, "this is gonna be ugly" one wolf remarked, "you know that monster was able to take down an elephant, what good would a wolf do?" asked another, "and those bird-things, they may be small, but they have hands and walk on two legs, they're able to do things we can't" said a third, "just because their hunting-methods differ from ours doesn't mean they're invincible" Bagheera reminds, "and at least they can't fly" said a fourth wolf, "maybe but they also got those toe-claws like the birds, only larger, they're all capable of methods we've never even seen before" said a fifth, "personally I think Zannah scares me the most, she's bigger than even a tiger, she could just beat us by squashing us like bugs" said a sixth, "I'm not getting my hopes up at all here, I mean, they're cold-blooded like other reptiles, but warm-blooded too, how's that even possible? it's like they cured themselves of all physiological weaknesses known" wondered a seventh, "we must try at least, besides they are still vulnerable to things like fire" Vermillion maintains, "and it's not like they know they'll be facing on a group of so many different species at once, especially one with a human who can speak our languages" Chil adds, "and we'll be dead for sure if we do nothing" Hathi adds, "look, if any of you wanna back out go right ahead, but anyone who's brave enough, step forward" Mowgli orders and most do: some immediately, some after giving it some thought, and some through encouragement, though there are some who back out, Kaa takes a headcount and sees the squad was mostly satisfactory, "well, we've still got enough" he counts, "ah ignore the quitters, they can always stand guard for the jungle-denizens" Kichi suggests, all the while Alex Jumeirah Meshua Rahhar Rikki and a good number of other humans were also watching: they somewhat envied Mowgli's communicative ways, but they could tell this was serious. There was one question in everyone's minds though: if there were living dinosaurs bent on destruction, what if they came and attacked the village? Later, Chil Mang and Mao were surveying the jungle, separately to cover more ground, and it wasn't long before Mao spotted something moving in the trees. Getting closer, he finds three Saurornithoides scouting around. "This is Mao, I've spotted three of those raptor dinosaurs northwest of Council-Rock" Mao reports through his collar, and not far away Bacchus was patrolling, "Bacchus here, I'm on my way" he replies and runs in the direction Mao described, coming to an area, he could make out footprints in the dirt, and smelling them confirmed Mao's report, but he sees they're heading further east, so he fallows it first before seeing it turned northward, and ahead of him Jacala was keeping watch from a pond, being still so he won't be noticed, and lucky for him, the same Saurornithoides, joined by two more, approach for a quick drink, not noticing the crocodile, although an Indian flapshell turtle almost blew his cover when it tried to crawl on him: its claws raking into his skin made Jacala want to complain, but fortunately it saw the dinosaurs and retreats back in the water, leaving the Saurornithoides puzzled about the rock (Jacala) in front of them for they could've sworn they saw it move, but they shrug it off and leave, letting the croc relax, "phew, that dumb turtle Oo almost got me caught" he swears before turning on his collar, "Jacala to everyone, I just saw five of those demon-birds pass by heading west" he relays just when Bacchus arrives, "hey Bacchus" he greets, "hey, you saw anything out of the ordinary?" Bacchus asks, "yep: five of those raptor-dinos just passed by for a drink" Jacala informs, "five? I saw three" Bacchus counted but dismisses it, "eh doesn't matter, Bacchus to base, I've picked up the scent of five sauro...sauror, sauro-whatever-s heading back the way they came" Bacchus notifies and by a few minutes later, everyone else arrive, "I'm picking up five of those beasts alright" Lala confirms, "alright then, wolves elephants Kaa and Baloo you sniff them out, the rest of us will be right behind you" Mowgli directs and the sniffers get to work in leading the way. As for the Saurornithoides, they were heading back to where their master was, not knowing they were being fallowed. Mowgli was riding his bike while the animals ran flew or slithered alongside. Eventually Mang noticed the scouts were slowing down. "They're slowing down" he relays through his collar and everyone else slow down too, Mowgli also gets off his bike and everyone proceed more slowly and quietly before they eventually find a good-sized pack of Saurornithoides that rivaled the wolves, and as the heroes stick to the shadows, something big was heard emerging, eventually revealing itself to be a Sinraptor: Zannah, and Mowgli and Jacala caught glimpses of scars on her, confirming their suspicions, "that's her alright, the one who ate that leopard I was looking for" Mowgli whispers, "and the elephant" Jacala notes while the four Saurornithoides scouts suddenly began barking to Zannah and she responds in kind with growls, "what are they doing?" Maki asks, "they're communicating: looks like they are allies" Bagheera notes, "hey, wait a minute: one two three four? I thought you and Bacchus said there were five" Virgil counts, noting only four out of five Saurornithoides were accounted for, "we did" Jacala asserts, "then there's one missing" Luri deduces, "okay so where-ah!" Akru began until a raptorial-foot suddenly lands right in front of him by inches, and he couldn't resist letting out a small scream from it, looking up, they see the last Saurornithoides looking straight at him, "do you really think we wouldn't anticipate your counterattack?" he sneers and Akru saw a scar on his muzzle: this was the same Saurornithoides he Sura Maki Jacala and Bagheera encountered yesterday; the one who gave the command to retreat, at the same time the other four and Zannah all face in their direction with smirks, looking like they too knew about this, "clever girl" Baloo notes before all hell broke lose. Stay tuned for The Jurassic Book, Chapter ten Notes *Oo is a turtle from the original stories, but he won't appear here. *Bagheera's home Oodeypore is really spelled "Udaipur" Gallery Category:Fanfiction